Al Dubin today would probably be called “a problem child.” Born in Switzerland and brought to the United States by his parents at the age of two, he cut school to see Broadway shows, was kicked out of high school for unsuitable behavior, and was expelled from medical school. He worked as a staff writer for a publishing company and wrote a hit song, “T’Was Only an Irishman’s Dream,” in 1916 with Rennie Carmack. After service in WWI, he returned to songwriting and enjoyed several modest hits.

He continued to write for films and collaborate with other composers into the 1940s. With Jimmy McHugh he wrote Carmen Miranda’s first American hit, “South American Way” which appeared in the 1939 Broadway show Streets of Paris. In 1940 he supplied lyrics to Duke Ellington’s “I Never Felt This Way Before” and collaborated with Edwina Coolidge on Will Grosz’s “Along the Santa Fe Trail.”